Wednesday, December 12, 2007

If there was one thing Bill Juneau loved as much as his country, it was his dog, Jake.

The accident-prone black Lab, who has been hit by two cars, had a toe amputated on his right paw and survived eating 42 candy bars in one sitting, once fell off a dock and through the ice on a lake while Juneau was hunting with his best friend, Dan Bock.

Bock said Juneau jumped into the icy, chest-deep water to save his dog.

"He threw that wet dog on the deck and sacrificed everything to save him," said Bock. "Bill's just that type of guy."

Juneau, a 10 year veteran of the Chisago County sheriff's deputy, was in Iraq helping to train Iraqi police recruits when his convoy was hit by and IED 50 miles outside Baghdad. A spokesperson for DynCorp, the private firm Juneau was working for, said Juneau was driving the lead vehicle in the large convoy that included U.S. Army personnel as well as members of the Iraqi National Police Force. The convoy was headed for a scheduled training mission. An Iraqi translator and a U.S. Army soldier sustained injuries in the blast as well.

His twin sister, Bridget Sura, said he wanted to help Iraqis rebuild their country and create better lives. "He would often sugar-coat the bad stuff, because he wanted us to know about the positive things," she said. "But we still worried every minute of every day." Another reason he joined was because he loved adventure, she said. While with the Chisago County Sheriff's Department, he started and led the country's SWAT team.

Jake, his dog, has been embraced by Juneau's sister's family. "He has more lives than a cat," Sura said, adding that they recently discovered a chocolate stash he'd hidden in his kennel.

"Jake is a part of my brother," she said. "He[Bill] will be missed by a lot of people. This will leave a hole in a lot of people's hearts."

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

5 comments:

Rush City is a small community not too far from St. Paul, where I live. We've passed it many times, but never stopped on our many trips to vacation in Duluth. Although I'm definitely not right wing, but decidely left wing, I can appreciate the sentiments even tho I am opposed to the war. It breaks my heart that so many valuable lives of young men and women from many countries are being lost and often maimed. I'm happy that there are people who honour their memories. Thanks for the post and the links you have provided.

Hi Kate, I appreciate your comments. I hate it when my life is disrupted from its normal daily routine and to think these brave men's & women's lives and their families lives are disrupted for years. I don't think I'm right or left winged, but I feel I had to do something to honor these soldiers and not to forget those who have given their lives.

Thanks for posting these AV. These men and women are true heroes. By the way, something kind of coincidental about this one...the picture - in the face, looks EXACTLY like my cousin Ryan. I am going to share the link with him. The resemblance is truly uncanny. I thought at first glance it was him, though I knew it was not.